Jack of Harts

The Democrats established a firm control of Texas politics after Reconstruction ended, and their local paramilitary white supremacy organizations continued to suppress the vote of the former slaves. But when the freedmen pushed a Republican to the federal House of Representatives in the 1890s, despite everything they did, the Democrats were done playing nice. They were the rightful rulers of Texas, not the Northern Carpetbaggers, not the so-called Southern Scalawags, and definitely not those Negroes who needed to be shown their place again. If assassinations and terror tactics did not do the job, then they would just have to change the laws so it would be illegal to vote. They added poll tax requirements, instituted White Primaries, and added literacy tests all while making certain that the segregated schools would not teach the skills needed to pass them. They banned Negroes from jury duty and law enforcement, which also banned them from carrying weapons of any kind, and turned them, once again, into second-class citizens not fit to show their faces in polite society.